Delhi’s most preferred preschools

A specially selected sample of 222 parents of preschool-going children and 65 knowledgeable principals and teachers in Delhi  rated and ranked the national capital’s Top 20 preschools

For the second consecutive year, The Magic Years Montessori House of Children, Vasant Vihar has been ranked Delhi’s most admired preschool. However this time round its lead over the second-ranked Step by Step, Panchsheel in the EW-C fore Delhi league table 2011 has reduced drama-tically from 50 points last year to a single point. Nevertheless, though the total score of Magic Years — one of the national capital’s first nurseries promoted way back in 1976 — has dipped, its popularity among the parents and teachers community hasn’t. A specially selected sample of 222 parents of pre-school-going children and 65 principals and teachers in Delhi has rated The Magic Years first on a record six parameters including competence of teachers, innovative teaching, parental involvement, safety and hygiene, leadership quality and play facilities.

“It’s very satisfying that Magic Years has been rated Delhi’s No.1 preschool again. As one of the city’s first Mont-essori schools, we have strived to maintain high standards and provide quality early childhood education. Our well-trained teachers are at the very heart of the institution and receive constant training, which enables them to add value to experiences shared in the classroom. We are also fortunate to have parents who are actively involved in the curriculum and great attention is paid to maintaining high levels of safety and hygiene on the school campus. This summer we’ve added a large hall on the first floor which gives us additional space for art and cultural activities, and we will be soon introducing sports into the curriculum.  A sports expert will integrate activities such as mini-tennis, basic exercises, hockey, basketball and football into the curriculum,” says Shirley Madhavan Kutty, founder-principal of The Magic Years which currently has an aggregate enrolment of 250 children from 15 countries instructed by 30 Montessori trained teachers (tuition fees: Rs.5,500 per month including meals).

While the Magic Years and Step by Step have maintained their first and second ranking in 2011, further down the Delhi league table there’s been some shuffling of positions. Learning Tree, Sujan Singh Park has vaulted from No.6 position in 2010 to No.3 this year while Shishuvan, Vasant Kunj and Kangaroo Kids, GK have slipped to No.4 and 5 respectively. At No.6 and 7 are two previously unranked preschools: Julia Gabriel Centre for Learning, Saket and Ardee Montessori School, Sujan Singh Park. The Top 10 table is completed by Kangaroo Kids, Vasant Kunj (8); Shemrock Heritage, Rohini (9) and EuroKids, Dwarka (10).

Chanda Lal Raisinghani, director of education, Ardee Montessori, gladly acknowledges the school’s debut in the latest EW-C fore Delhi league table. “We were probably not ranked last year because we don’t spend too much time on marketing and public relations. Nevertheless we are happy that we’ve been ranked among the Top 10 this year as we believe our early childhood education model which integrates the Montessori system with contemporary technology, outreach programmes and parenting capsules, is unique. Teacher competence is also one of our biggest strengths — we recruit teachers from our in-house Montessori Teacher Training Centre which has been training teachers for over a decade,” says Raisinghani, an alumna of Delhi University and the London Montessori Centre, who together with Shefali Verma co-promoted Ardee Montessori in 2003.

Ardee, which has 324 students and 29 teachers on its muster rolls offers state-of-the-art infrastructure on its one-acre campus, including well-lit classrooms, an amphitheatre, a sprawling half-an-acre of well-preserved greens lined with exotic trees and nesting birds, and a swimming pool. According to Raisinghani, incessant parental demand has resulted in “Ardee School inaugurating a branch in Gurgaon in 2008, which will expand into a K-12 CBSE school, and another K-12 school in North Goa”.

Also debuting in the Top 20 league table of Delhi’s most admired pres-chools 2011 is Little Pearls School, Vasant Vihar at No.11. That apart, there’s no new entrant though a number of nurseries in 11-20 positions have lost rank — The Study, East of Kailash has slipped from No.5 spot in 2010 to 13 this year as has iDiscoveri XSEED, Greater Kailash (from 13 to 15), Mother’s Pride, Punjabi Bagh (12 to 18); Bachpan, Pitampura (14 to 19) and Kidzee, Nirman Vihar (10 to 20) — while Tender Feet School,Vasant Kunj has risen in public esteem from No.18 position last year to 14 in 2011.

Delhi's best preschools league table userfiles/Delhi-table.pdf

Parameters of Excellence: Delhi's Top Preschools userfiles/Delhi-Parameters of Excellence.pdf